"These distribution numbers were known at the time the proposed settlement was agreed to by two dozen attorneys general and thousands of local governments," Connolly said.
But New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has been working to nail down how much money the Sacklers have and where they have it deposited, said in a statement that the Purdue’s own audit demonstrates the need for greater investigation.
"The fact that the Sackler family removed more than $10 billion when Purdue's OxyContin was directly causing countless addictions, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and tearing apart millions of families is further reason that we must see detailed financial records showing how much the Sacklers profited from the nation's deadly opioid epidemic," James said in a statement.
In a move to curb additional Sackler withdrawals from Purdue, the state of Arizona petitioned the Supreme Court, asking that the Sackler family be prohibited from transferring money from the company, claiming it was a strategy to avoid paying claims concerning OxyContin. The court declined to hear the case.
The company has continued to deny wrongdoing. Purdue Chairman Steve Million said the company’s settlement “avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation, and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis.”
A Sackler family spokesperson said the family hoped the bankruptcy reorganization would end its ownership of the company and hopefully liability for the Sacklers, who inherited the company from the three brothers—all doctors—who founded Purdue Pharm in 1952 after taking over a small New York drug manufacturer, remains to be seen.
The company operated under the radar until it began selling Oxycontin in 1995, a fast-acting, long-lasting pain reliever that some call morphine in a pill, The Centers for Disease Control estimates more than 450,000 people have died from opioid overdoses since 1999.